San Francisco ranks high for traffic congestion

When you’re sitting in stop-and-go traffic, clutching the steering wheel while your head explodes, it probably doesn’t give you any solace to know that the San Francisco metropolitan area is one of the most-congested cities in North America.

The good news, commuters, is that Los Angeles is still has worse traffic than we do, according to the study by Tom Tom, an in-car navigation service. But the No. 2 position isn’t held by another U.S. city but by our West Coast Canadian neighbors: Vancouver.

Both LA and Vancouver recorded congestion levels of 34 percent in the survey, which uses Tom Tom devices to gauge the percentage difference between driving times during peak traffic hours and those when traffic flows freely. The quarterly survey was taken between July and September. While the percent rankings are the same, traffic volumes are considered when compiling the rankings, said Paulina Bucko, a spokeswoman for Tom Tom.

San Francisco was close behind at 33 percent. Rounding out the top 10 are Honolulu, 31 percent (Who said it was paradise?); Seattle, 27 percent; Toronto, 26 percent; New Orleans, 25 percent; San Jose, 25 percent; Montreal, 24 percent and Chicago, 24 percent.

Tom Tom claims to have the most accurate traffic study, which looks at congestion in 57 metro areas with populations greater than 950,000. It uses GPS data from 100 million anonymous sources, the company says. The average congestion level in all cities was 19 percent.

Since six of the 10 most gridlocked areas are on the Pacific Coast, for commuters west is not best.